There are two major types of vehicle door window arrangements. The first arrangement is that of a sedan-type vehicle door. In the sedan-type vehicle door, the door has a channel that extends above the belt level of the door and encloses a glass window pane when the glass window pane is in its top position. A second type of vehicle door is the hard-top vehicle door wherein the glass, after extending from the belt line of the vehicle door, is totally unsupported above the belt line and mates with the weatherstrip along a door opening of the vehicle. In the hard-top design, the stability of the window glass is totally achieved by its connection with the door below the belt line of the vehicle door. The hard-top vehicle door is also used in convertibles and other vehicle body styles.
Many vehicle doors with extendable windows of the hard-top variety have two parallel channels mounted within the interior of the door. A cross arm (as in Lam et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,627), a cable (as in Dupuy, U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,281) or a tape drive (as in Staran et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,642,941) regulator mechanism is thereafter attached with the vehicle door. Thereafter, the glass window is attached to the channel members via guide blocks to complete the assembly. The various components are then adjusted to ensure the proper fit of the window and to prevent any possible binding in the up and down movement of the window.
To reduce costs, and in an attempt to prevent alignment problems, it is desirable to allow the channel members and regulator mechanism to be assembled into the vehicle door as one pre-assembled unit with the guide blocks already on the channel members.